The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 243

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Yeo Joo Saves the World
Part 2, Episode 64

[ The damage the Death Knight received from the ‘Mark of Finality’ has been transferred to you. ]
[ The ‘Absolute Defense Necklace II (S)’ successfully blocked the non-physical attack. ]
[ Remaining defense uses: 0/5 ]
[ The ‘Absolute Defense Necklace II (S)’ has been destroyed. ]

As the message window flashed before my eyes, I heard the faint sound of the necklace’s black gem crumbling to dust.
‘In the end.’
This was already the third time.
Three times I had failed to destroy the core, and each time the creature resurrected while I bore the brunt of the damage.
“A cockroach of a thing.”
Compared to the god’s shell from before, the headless knight’s raw power was within reason.
Its true weapon lay in that cockroach-like tenacity—its relentless vitality.
It was strange to speak of life force in a monster whose head had been severed long ago, one that had transcended death itself into becoming death incarnate, yet that was precisely what it was.
“Ji Sung, over here.”
“…Thank you.”
I handed over everything I had brought as backup to Han Ji Sung, who had already exhausted all the mana potions he carried.
Even after he urgently drained two bottles of mana potion, Han Ji Sung’s pallid complexion showed little improvement.
Repeated mana depletion had already left him utterly drained.
“Haa, haa.”
“Huu….”
The sight of Kang Han and Sa Ma Young gasping in ragged breaths was far more dire.
Hours into the battle with the Death Knight, it demanded not only stamina but also intense concentration.
As the close-quarters combat continued, requiring every sense honed to its peak, both of them were falling apart.
Yet there was no time to rest.
The Death Knight was not such a lenient opponent.
A single small mistake led directly to a fatal wound.
“Sa Ma Young, quickly!”
The moment a brief window opened before the Death Knight could resurrect again, I called out to Sa Ma Young.
The deep sword wound that left his left shoulder blade hanging in tatters had been inflicted when he stepped forward to block while Kang Han created an opening to use his skill.
It was a relief that Sa Ma Young, unexpectedly cooperative when it came to a common cause, hadn’t turned this into a failed group project.
Yet with each violent heartbeat, crimson blood gushed forth, and my mood grew increasingly foul.
Even more so watching him maintain razor-sharp vigilance during those brief moments when the trauma potion was being applied.
The severe wound that had cut through his collarbone and shoulder blade barely stopped the bleeding even after two bottles of trauma potion were poured into it.
But my hand reaching toward the potion box couldn’t help but hesitate.
Only a single potion remained within my grasp.
My gaze inevitably turned toward Kang Han.
Though not as severe as Sa Ma Young’s injuries, Kang Han bore countless wounds across his entire body.
Clink.
As the potion bottle caught on my fingertips with a soft sound, Sa Ma Young’s eyes briefly left the battlefield, darting between me and the wooden box.
I cursed inwardly.
But as I tried to retrieve the last remaining potion without making it obvious, Sa Ma Young seized my hand and stopped me.
For a moment, we stood impossibly close, our eyes meeting.
It was strange.
Until then, I had always thought Sa Ma Young was straightforward and easy to read, but in that instant, I couldn’t decipher what he was thinking at all.
While I hesitated, suddenly finding Sa Ma Young unfamiliar, he spun around sharply and returned to the battlefield.
“Save it.”
Those were the only words he left behind.
“Then at least get healed before you go!”
But Sa Ma Young never came back.
The Death Knight appeared without warning in a place not far away.
I cried out immediately.
“The core is almost gone!”
That was why I had continued attacking without surrendering until the necklace was destroyed.
Even for a Death Knight, complete freedom from death was impossible.
With each resurrection, its core visibly diminished.
What had started as slightly larger than a fist was now smaller than a ping-pong ball.
Hearing my cry, both Kang Han and Sa Ma Young immediately rushed at the Death Knight again.
Boom—! Clang! Crackle!
Watching the fierce battle resume, I found myself biting my nails unconsciously.
‘Just one or two more kills and it should be over.’
The method to defeat the Death Knight confirmed in the 【Sejong Records】 was simple.
Continue forcing it to resurrect, just as I had been doing, until the core disappeared entirely.
‘The problem is that I’m defenseless now.’
The necklace Jung Je Hwa had given me had already served its purpose and been destroyed.
That meant I couldn’t avoid the damage transmitted when the knight died next.
It would be as if I were taking the full brunt of an S-rank monster’s attack.
Whoosh, slash!
Crack, crackle—!
Sa Ma Young’s sword and Kang Han’s spear looked particularly terrifying.
‘There’s no way I could withstand that.’
Yet no matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t think of a way to remove the mark hovering above my head.
Even when I tried using healing skills and dark purification skills on my body, it only wasted my stamina—the mark remained unchanged.
I couldn’t remove the mark until that bastard knight was dead.
‘There’s not exactly no way to do this….’
But would it actually work?
I felt my eyelids trembling as I watched the battle unfold.
What if it doesn’t work?
What if I’m thinking about this all wrong?
Questions that seemed plausible on the surface flooded my mind.
Boom!
The Death Knight, losing its balance from Kang Han’s strike, crashed to the ground.
Sa Ma Young seized the opening and drove his sword deep into the creature’s chest plate, pinning it to the earth.
“Kang Han!”
Sa Ma Young shouted as he kicked away the knight’s blade that was flying toward him.
Kang Han threw down his spear and condensed lightning in both his hands.
Crack! Crack!
In an instant, the lightning formed the shape of a short spear and pierced directly into the knight’s right arm and left thigh.
The Death Knight was completely incapacitated.
Now there was no time left.
I had to decide.
‘What do I do?’
Finally, a crunching sound echoed from my bitten fingernails.
The sharp pain spreading from my fingertips suddenly brought me back to my senses.
“…What else can I do if I don’t try?”
I couldn’t just die without attempting anything.
I immediately drank one of Chung Soo’s vitality-boosting tonics.
I wasn’t hoping for the twenty-minute invincibility effect attached to the potion.
I didn’t expect an A-rank item’s option to be able to block an S-rank curse.

[ Detection: You have consumed ‘Vitality Tonic (A)’. ]
[ Warning: Overuse of potions is dangerous. ]

Beyond the system’s warning window, I could see Kang Han generating lightning far larger than his spear.
Without taking my eyes off that sight, I drank two more tonics.

[ Detection: You have consumed ‘Vitality Tonic (A)’. ]
[ Warning: Overuse of potions is dangerous. ]
[ Detection: You have consumed ‘Vitality Tonic (A)’. ]
[ Warning: Overuse of potions is dangerous. ]

Kang Han raised the pale yellow flash high into the air.
At the same time, I squeezed my eyes shut.
The last image of Kang Han’s retreating figure and Sa Ma Young’s crimson blood flowing anew from wounds not yet fully healed burned as an afterimage against my eyelids.
Gulp.
I swallowed the final potion.

[ Substance abuse is dangerous. ]
[ You receive a penalty for potion overuse. ]

The roulette wheel spun rapidly.
‘Please!’
My desperate cry coincided with the click-click sound as the rotation came to a halt.

[ Penalty Random Draw Result! ]
[ You will fall into a comatose state for 5 days. ]

Once again, the goddess of luck smiled upon me.
A mere five days of status abnormality—harsher than I’d hoped, but far from the worst outcome.
Seo Yu Baek had mentioned it.
While unconscious from the potion overuse penalty, no skill could touch him.
I prayed it applied not only to Awakeners’ skills but to monsters’ abilities as well.
Before falling into the comatose state, I opened my eyes one last time to assess the situation, but my vision had already grown too hazy to see far.
All I could make out was Han Ji Sung’s silhouette as he continued casting magic.
In that final moment before consciousness slipped away, I thought:
‘I should have warned Ji Sung not to be too shocked.’

* * *

Thud!
At the ominous sound, Han Ji Sung stopped his spell casting and turned around.
“…Yeo Joo?”
He couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing.
Why was Yeo Joo collapsed over there?
From a distance, he heard Kang Han drive a flash of light into the enemy with a sharp crack, but Han Ji Sung turned away from the battlefield and strode toward Yeo Joo.
“Yeo Joo. What’s wrong, Yeo Joo.”
As he dropped to both knees, his arms kept slipping as he tried to embrace her.
Something was terribly wrong.
It was far too limp to be merely a brief loss of consciousness.
It felt as though he were holding a stuffed doll wearing Yeo Joo’s face.
Han Ji Sung cradled her drooping head in his arms and gently tapped her cheek, desperately trying to rouse her.
“Yeo Joo, come on, snap out of it. Yeo Joo….”
Then, suddenly, realization struck.
“Why, why isn’t she breathing. Why isn’t she….”
The second realization came far more horrifyingly.
Han Ji Sung carefully brought his palm to her cheek.
Her ashen, bloodless skin was growing progressively colder.
Driven by instinct to share his warmth, Han Ji Sung pulled her body close and screamed with veins bulging from his neck.
“Han!”
Kang Han, who had been watching the knight dissolve into black ash, turned at that anguished cry.
“…Yeo Joo?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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